


Midnight Moonlight

by PiscesParoxysm



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Happy Niall, Larry Stylinson Is Real, M/M, No Sex, Past Character Death, Romance, Sad Louis, Slow Burn, harry plays guitar, i guess those are all the characters?, larry stylinson - Freeform, liam and zayn might get it on????????????, literally have no clue, uh i have no idea where this fic is going
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-14 06:24:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13001760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiscesParoxysm/pseuds/PiscesParoxysm
Summary: Louis goes for a nice walk around the neighborhood one night and he sees a window exuding light.





	1. Lux

**Author's Note:**

> louis was stumblinnnnnng looking in the daarrrrrrrrk with an empty heaaaaarrrrrrrrrt

The mass of bodies swaying in tune to the music is almost beautiful. That is up until Louis realizes that everyone is balancing on the fine line of dancing and having sex. Watching loads of teenagers dance, drunk and high off their minds isn’t beautiful at all, it’s actually the opposite. Just as the mind blowing thought comes to his brain, he realizes that he _really_ needs to pee. He makes the way to the closest bathroom. He begins examining the line to see if it’s worth the wait. It’s not. The line is filled with dug-addicts waiting to get their next itch. He’d much rather pee in the comforts of his own home. That way he will not having to worry about tweakers pounding on the door to snort their next line of coke. He starts scanning the room, looking for his friends that he came to the party with. Of course, they are nowhere in sight so he pulls out his phone, shoots them a text, and starts walking towards the door. Although, something stops him from making it to his desired destination.

  
“Mate! Where d’ya think you’re going?” The blue eyed brunette asks.

  
“Uh, me mum called, she needs me to help her take out some Christmas decorations. . .” Louis mumbles, he doesn’t know how Niall can even hear him, or if he’ll believe the lie he just spouted effortlessly. A really dumb lie to be quite honest.

  
“Really? You’re gonna help your mum take out _Christmas decorations_ instead of stay at a party?” Niall interrogates him.

  
Louis mentally scolds himself for not coming up with a better excuse, who the hell leaves a party to help their mum take down christmas decorations? “Yeah, me sisters have been begging me mum to get out the decorations for weeks mate, I told her I would help her before I left for the party but she wasn’t there when I left and-”

  
“Jesus, if you don’t want to be here just say so! Sorry you had such a shit time mate!” Niall says, so calm, so effortless, he doesn’t think nearly as much as Louis. Is it because he’s buzzed? No, Niall is always like that.

  
“Yeah, well there will be plenty more of these parties right?” Louis laughs, trying to distract Niall’s attention so he forgets that Louis just flat out lied to him.

  
“You’re right about that one Tommo! Plenty more of these to come, so go help your mum.” Niall laughs, and Louis feels like such a prick for continuing this charade with Niall, his best mate. He doesn’t let it consume him though, he’s let too many things do that to him lately.

  
So he brushes him off, and moves past him as quick as he can to get to the door. Then out of nowhere, he realizes that he really has to take a piss, and he doesn’t know if he’s going to make it to his house at this point. Just as he walks out of the house, he sees people doubled over retching, and their friends holding their hair, or trying to comfort them in some way. He instantly forgets his growing need to pee and just wants to get out of there as soon as he can. He bows his head down, trying not to look at anyone because he knows that he will start to throw up if he keeps watching. When he feels the wind whip through his hair he realizes he’s actually running to his house, his body subconsciously looking for a bathroom so he can relieve himself. He realizes that he’s getting closer and closer to his house when he sees the familiar scenery. The mailboxes that are slightly bent over are the dead giveaway that he’s only a few feet from his house.

  
He stops dead in his tracks when he sees his dad’s car in the driveway, parked all skewed. He can hear a low rumble of shouts, and he can tell that his dad is in there alone because the car that all his siblings share is nowhere to be found. They usually go to their friends’ houses when their dad is acting like this. No one really knows how to calm him because the only person that could comfort him in times like these has left his side, forever.

  
He quickly pulls out his phone and begins typing out the word that he’s used too often in the past couple of months.

_**Don’t come to the house. It’s dad again.** _

He presses send, and watches the eerie house that he used to call home. It hasn’t been his _home_ in months, not since she left, and didn’t come back. His dad hasn’t been the same since then. When her bubbly, kind spirit left, so did his soul. He’s no longer a loving father, he’s a careless, angry drunk. He’s angry at the world, mostly. He’s angry that he didn’t get to spend an eternity with her, but she spent her eternity with him. He felt like the universe ripped her away from his grasp just so she could visit the moon and dance among the stars.

  
Louis starts racking his brain for things to do instead of walk into that dreaded house. He starts scrolling through the contacts on his phone, looking for the name of the person that can help him get out of the dark space that he’s in right now. Just as he presses the call button he remembers that he just left Niall and he quickly hangs up, hoping and praying that Niall never got the notification on his phone.

  
He walks towards the tree that always gave him comfort as a kid. Where he used to hide from the real world, pretending that he was fighting the bad guys, protecting the ones he loved. Thoughts of not being able to protect _her_ dance around his head, knocking over any ounce of sanity that he had left. He sits down, legs intertwined, back facing the tree, and he begins to cry. Unsure of what to do now that she’s gone, he knows he can’t protect the ones he loves the way he used to when he was a kid. Not when he can’t even protect himself from the demons that haunt him. Louis closes his eyes, and bows his head and welcomes the sobs that consume his entire body. His thoughts laced with self deprecation and sorrow.

  
He begins to think back at every mistake he’s ever made with _her_ , thinking that he could have saved her. (He couldn’t have.) He thinks of what she would do if she was in his shoes, how would she handle all this. Is she happy where she is now? He just can’t stop thinking. Thinking about _her_.

  
When he finally comes out of his trance, he realizes that the faint shouts in the house have stopped. The house seems a lot more serene than it was earlier, so he decides that maybe he can pass the threshold this time and use the bathroom. As he steps foot into the house, he immediately is taken aback by the state of the house, but he shouldn’t be. He’s been used to seeing the house in such disarray after his father had come back after a long night of drinking. But he’s never seen something like this.

  
There’s a faint light revealing the mess that his drunken father made. The cushions are off the couches, the stain-clad cushions are scattered across the living room floor. There’s a large, wet stain shining on the wall accompanied with broken bits of glass gleaming underneath it. _He must have smashed a bottle against the wall. . ._ He looks to the right of the stain, and notices that some of the pictures that were neatly placed on the mantle are missing, or are faced down. Almost as if the look of them caused the observer too much pain.

  
His eyes make their way to the kitchen, the source of the dull light. The refrigerator door is wide open, the small lightbulb illuminating the room. The light is dim, shadows mainly consuming the room. It was almost as if the lack of light was was making a conscious effort to hide the secrets that accompany the house. But no matter how dark it is, secrets will always find a way to the light.

  
Louis marches over to shut the fridge, too afraid to turn on the lights in the house. He doesn’t want to see what other huge mess his father created. Once the light bulb from the fridge is forced into hiding, Louis takes notice of the glow coming from underneath his parents’ bedroom door. At first he finds it odd, his dad hasn’t stepped foot in the room since she left.

  
He treads over to his parents’ room hoping that he’s not loud enough for his dad to hear him, and he decides to make a bold move and open the door without knocking. He twists the doorknob and slightly pushes, the sight before him is his father. Upon closer examination he notices that he’s sleep on his mum’s side of the bed, a picture frame close to his chest, with multiple picture frames carelessly laid out near his body. He notices a quick theme with all of them. They are all pictures of quintessential moments that his father shared with her.

  
He begins to cry for the man, because he knows that man sprawled across on the bed in front of him is not who he was months ago. He used to be the most devoted father ever, who always thought of his family before himself. Who sacrificed as much as he could just to see a smile on his children’s faces. His love for her was so strong that it broke him into a million pieces. Louis doesn’t blame his father for what happened or how he’s acting now. He thinks of what she would do in this situation, and after just a few seconds of thinking he knows exactly what she would do.

  
He begins to pile up the picture frames and he puts them back on the mantle like nothing ever happened. He goes back to his dad, puts a blanket over him and shuts off the light, shutting the door and leaves him in peace. Louis starts cleaning the mess his father made in the living room. (He hopes this doesn’t become a usual thing, even though it already is one.) Then he finally relieves himself in the bathroom. It was much needed.

  
After he realizes that he doesn’t want to be alone when his father wakes up from his drunken slumber, he decides it’s best to leave. He doesn’t know where he should go though. Maybe if he walked around he would figure out where to go? He walks out the door and starts scrolling through twitter and clicking through snapchat to find a party. Yeah he just left one not that long ago, but maybe he’ll find a better one where people actually try to get their own room when they attempt to have sex.

  
Louis reaches the end of his street, and he still hasn’t found anything that could entertain him for the night. He takes out his headphones and starts to listen to ABBA in an effort to drown out the world around him. He could use a nice nature walk at 11:30 PM. It’d be good for his health, and he’s heard that exercise helps reduce stress.  
He keeps walking and walking and walking, trying to clear out his head. Right when he’s deep in thought about how he’s going to have to start caring for his sisters and probably needs to get a job, he sees a window lit up. The window is adorned with thin, white curtains softly moving in the wind like it’s fighting an internal battle of whether it wants to go outside or stay inside. It’s the only window on the whole block that has a light on, and something about it is. . .comforting? It’s like he’s not the only person in this town that isn’t asleep in bed.

  
He stares at the window for a bit, creating a whole entire backstory for the person on the other side. He knows that it’s the dumbest thing he could possibly be doing right now but it’s a distraction enough to take his mind off of his life. He’s still deciding on how many siblings this person has when he notices that he hears soft strums of a guitar. He tries to figure out what song on his ipod matches with the beautiful melody he’s hearing but he just can’t figure it out. He then grabs his phone to cheat on the self-inflicted test he had given himself and that’s when he realizes, his music isn’t even playing anymore. Bewildered, he looks up.

  
There is a silhouette of a person near the window with a guitar in their hands, slowly swaying back and forth with the tune of the song. Then the music stops. He sees the silhouette put the guitar down, pace for a second, then pick the guitar up again. The music begins again, but this time a new chord is added, making it sound even better than it did before. _He doesn’t even know how they did that, and he would like to know immediately where they got guitar lessons._ Intoxicated in the silhouette, he mindlessly sways his body to the song just like how the silhouette is. Louis can almost make out the lyrics (Yes, he was concentrating that hard) when out of nowhere, the music stops and the noise shifts to the sound of a girl shouting,

  
“Shut up will you? I’m trying to sleep!”

  
“Alright, alright chill out! I’m trying to finish this song.” The silhouette answers back.  _What a nice voice._

  
“Finish it when the world is AWAKE!”

  
“Just go back to bed! Jesus!”

  
“I can’t go back to bed with you repeating the same fucking tune and over analyzing every single lyric!”

 

“You’ll wish you were nicer to me when this goes #1 on the charts! I’ll be sure to mention you, my sister that doesn’t support me, in my interviews!”

  
“Oh, shut up! I’m supportive but not when you are disrupting my beauty sleep!”

  
“Just 20 more minutes!”

  
“Fine!”

  
And with the last word exchanged between the two mysterious strangers, a door is slammed. Louis can’t help but smile at the sound of two siblings bickering. He misses that. The past few months he hasn’t seen his sisters enough to actually argue with them over trivial things.

  
His thoughts immediately get erased from his mind when he hears the music seep through the window yet again. The music is so serene and calming. It reminds him of. . .home. Or what is supposed to feel like anyway. Once the music stops--this time uninterrupted by a screaming sister--Louis realizes just how creepy he has been. He immediately puts his music on shuffle and scurries down the empty block. With every window he passes that has no light shining through his small sliver of comfort diminishes.


	2. Lumière

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> louis gets a job (YEEHaw)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dreams unwind, love's a state of mind

Louis wakes up with the sun shining in his eyes, which instantly puts him in a sour mood. He’s woken up like this far too much recently, but who doesn’t get aggressively depressed during the winter? He does his usual routine, which in reality is just moping around the house telling himself he’ll start doing things to better himself, but ends up only doing half the things on the list. Which progresses to him getting angry about not doing everything on the list and then sitting down to mope some more and low and behold. He repeats the vicious cycle again and again. He's been in this endless loop since _she_  left, and there is no hope in getting out of it anytime soon. 

Louis is summoned out of his self deprecation when he hears a door slam, followed by two sets of footsteps. _They’re home._ He quickly jumps out of bed and pulls on some decently smelling clothes and runs towards the kitchen. He needs to make breakfast for them to feel more comfortable in their. . .home? No, house. Louis just wants to make sure that they know that they are cared for just as much as they were before everything happened. . .the amount of love that they deserve will always be the same. 

They walk in and greet Louis as they always do. (Them not sleeping at their own house has become eerily normal now.) He smiles at them and asks what they did the night before, and so on. They exchange crazy stories about their friends and Louis can’t help but smile. It seems as if they are adjusting better than he is to be quite honest. Louis envies their lack of stress. He wishes he could be like them, but now he has to be 'the man' of the house and take care of everyone. He doesn't necessarily mind it, he just wishes it wasn't sprung on him so suddenly. He hasn't had time to prepare, mentally, financially. . .in any way really. 

While they are telling him what caused their friend Emma to get on the roof from her bedroom window, Louis starts taking out the supplies to make a simple eggs and bacon breakfast. The only problem is that the stove won’t light. Yeah sure, it usually takes a while, but it’s never taken this long and it usually makes a noise to show that it’s making some sort of effort to turn on. . . the gas bill. Did his dad ever pay it? He saw a letter on the counter earlier from the gas company. . .

Louis makes his way over to the counter while Daisy is explaining to him that Emma got locked out on the roof because Phoebe took it upon herself to lock and shut the window, thinking it would be funny.

“Phoebe, you can’t be doing that, love, Emma could’ve gotten herself killed.” Louis mindlessly states while he picks up the envelope marked urgent.

“Louis it’s not like that! She was just trying to get her markers! Ava immediately pushed me out of the way and unlocked it, and helped Emma in! Even if she fell it wouldn’t have hurt that much. . .their house isn’t that big. . .” Phoebe mumbled out the last few words with her eyes looking down into her lap.

“Oh! Then that changes the whole situation! Glad my baby sister has thought about her life-long friend plummeting to her death from her second story bedroom window! That doesn’t worry me at all!” Louis teases as he opens the envelope and the whole room erupts in laughter. While Louis’ favorite sisters (Don’t tell Lottie and Fizzy) are laughing, he reads the letter from the gas company, announcing that they will be rescinding the use of their gas in the Tomlinson household. Louis looks at the letter once more and looks at his sisters. His eyes despondent, but they are so wrapped up in their own little worlds that they don’t even notice, and he’s thankful for that. He decides to just heat up some leftovers from the microwave, since they haven’t turned off the electricity. Yet _._

Louis goes to check up on his dad while his sisters are eating their food, but he's not sure if he’s ready to see such a mess of a man in the unforgiving light of day. He walks up to the door and gives it a light knock, no response. He silently opens the door. Relief washes over him when he sees his dad in the same exact spot he left him last night. It’s better that his dad is home asleep, in the bed that he hasn’t slept in for months, rather than out at a bar, drinking himself numb.

He silently judges his dad for not wanting to go to work to keep his family alive and well, He knew that was what _she_ would want but he also knew that his dad didn't want to be working when he was feeling like this. The times that his dad has  _attempted_  to go to work in the past few months could be counted on one hand. It was so obvious to anyone that knew him that he was having trouble even getting out of bed in the morning, let alone going to work.  He probably has spent more time at the bars around town than at his own house ever since _she_ left. The only thing that he could think to do is to go out and look for a job. Maybe somewhere near his sisters’ school so he can pick them and take them to school easily? Yeah, that would be a good idea.  

 

Louis leaves his dad along and drops his sisters off at Ava's house. Apparently they already planned this sleepover and when Louis told them that they needed to go visit a friend while he's out they were glad that they didn't have to tell him that they were leaving him alone. With dad. Again. After he drops them off and walks them to the front door and greets Ava's mother, Alicia, he starts to drive near the mall and looks for help wanted signs around the area. Louis is driving around the mall for at least 30 minutes just attempting to find a parking spot. Of course he decides to come to the mall at the busiest time of the year. Who decides to get a job at a shopping mall just before the winter holidays? This place is going to be mental. Then Louis sees a small shopping center that is not necessarily part of the mall, but it's nice enough. And definitely not as crowded. He finds a parking spot easily and starts walking in store to store asking the managers, owners, and workers if they are looking for help. They all respond with the same answer, no. Some a bit nicer than the others, but disappointing all the same. Louis' spirits dwindle when he walks into a really cute bookstore and gets turned down instantly. The worker at the counter doesn't even make eye contact with him when he rudely tells him that they aren't hiring. Maybe working at the bookstore just wasn't in his cards, and honestly he's lucky that he didn't even get considered for the job because he would probably be just as supercilious and callous as the guy he talked to. Right when he's about to give up all hope he sees a sign on a door that says 'help wanted', it doesn't have a banner up or anything indicating what kind of store it is but it looks like a. . .music shop? He pushes on the door and once he crosses the threshold a bell chimes.

 

"I'll be with you in a minute." A voice says.

 

"Okay, I'll just be here." Louis says, taking a look around the place.

 

Boxes upon boxes are piled on top of each other near one wall, and shelving units seemed to be placed haphazardly throughout the place. Behind what seems to be the register, Louis sees a bunch of old classic guitars neatly displayed. They are the only thing in the place that seems to be somewhat organized. Louis wanders his way over to one of the guitars, and just as he's about to pluck one of the strings a voice interrupts him.

 

"What can I do for you, kid?" The man says wiping his palms on his pants.

 

"I saw the help wanted sign in the window. . ." Louis hesitantly says while examining the man. He's older. His hair has a gray tinge to it and he has a lot of sun spots. His beard is borderline white at this point and his clothes make it all the more obvious that he's aged considering his choice of dress slacks and cardigan. He doesn't really look like he would be the type who would own a music store, but Louis' judgment has proved him wrong in the past. (Whether he'd like to admit it or not.)

 

"Oh yeah, forgot for a minute that I had that sign out there. I could use all the help I can get! When could you start?" The old man smiles and starts to sort through the boxes. _Is that an ABBA record?_

 

"I can start whenever, yeah? But don't you want to interview me to make sure I'm not a blithering idiot?" Louis stares at the man baffled at how easily he hires people. Should he be worried? What if the next person that walks in that asks for a job is an ex-convict who just murdered someone but managed to get out of the clunker? Would his next coworker be a serial killer?

 

"Well are you?" The old man says sorting through more CDs. Louis catches a glance at a few Fleetwood Mac CDs, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to work here after all. . .

 

"Am I what?"

 

"A blithering idiot?" The old man smiles, he notices Louis wandering eyes on the merchandise.

 

"No, I most certainly am not. I'm one of the finest lads in this town." Louis smiles, taking a step back and holding himself higher.

 

"Great! You're hired." The man says smiling and taking his stack of CDs to the front desk.

 

"Just like that? I'm hired! You didn't even ask for my qualifications, my references!" Louis slightly scolds the man while simultaneously following the man over to the front counter. The man bends over seeming to be looking for something. After opening a few drawers he pulls out a huge stack of little dividers with letters on them.

 

"Just like that! I'm assuming you know how to alphabetize albums correct?" The man who still hasn't shared his name says.

 

"Yeah, of course, of course."

 

"Perfect, you start right now then." The man hands him the stack of cards and heads to the back of the store, "Start sorting all the CDs and put them on the shelves please, I'll pay you triple time if you finish sorting them tonight. I'll be in the back if you need anything, just yell for me."

 

Louis stands baffled at the counter with the stack of dividers in his hands, "Hey! I never caught your name!"

 

"Oh, bloody hell! Sorry, I've seemed to have lost my manners trying to get this place in order." The man quickly walks to Louis, "I'm Geoff, and you are?"

 

Louis sticks out his hand that isn't full of alphabetized dividers , "I'm Louis."

 

"Well it's great to be working with you, boy." He says and  quickly walks away, mysteriously vanishing to the back room. Louis decides to start getting to work, he needs the money to provide for his sisters. He wants them to continue living comfortably, just like it was before _she_ left. Louis almost starts to shed a tear thinking about her, but he realizes that crying at work on the first day probably isn't the best idea. He starts to dive into the 'work', but he does have trouble finding the 'f' divider for a second and ends up searching the whole place for it. Of course, he ends up finding it in his back pocket when he decides to give up and start working on the 'g' section.

  


It's nearly 10:30 pm when Louis finally puts the last CD collection on the shelf. It's finally starting to look like a music shop now. Louis starts walking towards the back of the shop to tell Geoff that he’s done when Geoff suddenly emerges at the door frame. Causing Louis to jump and stop him in his tracks.

 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you there! Are you finished?” Geoff says with one of the biggest fake smile on his face ever. He looks like he's trying to hide something. Sadness maybe?

"Yup, all finished! Took me longer than I expected, but I got it done." Louis smiles at the man, trying to share the little bit of happiness he has left. 

"Great, I can pay you in cash right now," He says while walking back to the room, "I don't have a system set up yet, so I'll just pay you in cash until I figure out everything. Is that okay?" He walks back out with a wad of cash. "I'll see you tomorrow at 10 am?"

Louis hesitantly grabs the money, "Yeah sure see you tomorrow at 10!" 

"Great! Bye!" The man says a little uncomfortably, then walking back to the room that he's been in all day. Louis finds it out, but who is he to judge the guy harshly? He just worked for the man and got a decent chunk of change from him so he can't complain. He leaves the store and walks back to his car, excited that he can get home and pay the bills that his dad has been ignoring for months. 

When he pulls up to the driveway, he sees all the lights on in the house that used to be a source of comfort for him. But right now, the lights look menacing and the door doesn't look as inviting as it used to. The lights that lit up the path to the front door are either broken or knocked over, and the grass in the lawn is ridiculously long. He needs to mow the lawn one of these days. . .

Louis decides to suck it up and go into the house. So he turns off the engine, pulls his key out of the ignition, and opens the car door. Just as he opens the front door he hears the too familiar sound of his father screaming and then a loud thud. It's coming from the bedroom, and he wouldn't be surprised if it's the picture frame that his dad was clutching to his chest the night before. He quickly turns around and starts walking. 

He doesn't know where he is until he sees the familiar window emitting light and whispering music through the wind. He stands there and listens for a minute. Letting the sweet melodies calm his mind and control his soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry yall i barely edited this and i know it's lowkey shit don't come for me rip


End file.
